[sci.electronics] Electrolysis Car of Yesterday

esmith@goofy.apple.com (Eric Smith) (11/18/90)

In article <1990Nov17.213701.25601@en.ecn.purdue.edu> cantello@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Craig A Cantello) writes:

>	A battery powered an electrolysis of water.
>	The hydrogen and oxygen were burned in a combusion motor.
>	An alternator attached to the motor, charged the battery.
>	Max. speed : 40 mph
>	Emissions : Water vapor

Yes, I have one.  They're great!  I modified mine to feed the exaust back
into the fuel tank.  You can save a lot of money with these :-) :-)

--
Eric L. Smith      Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those
esmith@apple.com   of my employer, friends, family, computer, or even me!  :-)

minsky@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Marvin Minsky) (11/18/90)

In article <ESMITH.90Nov17170639@goofy.apple.com> esmith@goofy.apple.com (Eric Smith) writes:
>In article <1990Nov17.213701.25601@en.ecn.purdue.edu> cantello@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Craig A Cantello) writes:
>
>>	A battery powered an electrolysis of water.
>>	The hydrogen and oxygen were burned in a combusion motor.
>>	An alternator attached to the motor, charged the battery.
>>	Max. speed : 40 mph
>>	Emissions : Water vapor
>
>Yes, I have one.  They're great!  I modified mine to feed the exaust back
>into the fuel tank.  You can save a lot of money with these :-) :-)


I modified mine, too, the same way.  Then I found it worked even
better if you remove the battery, water, and fuel system, and simply
connect the alternator right to the motor.  That worked so well that I
added another alternator in parallel -- and then car went 80 mph.

One problem, though.  When going up steep hills the motor gets
awfully, and the generator gets very cold.  I'm worried that something
will go wrong.  Any suggestions?

ee5391aa@hydra.unm.edu (Duke McMullan n5gax) (11/19/90)

In article <4086@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> minsky@media-lab.media.mit.edu
(Marvin Minsky) writes:

>One problem, though.  When going up steep hills the motor gets
>awfully, and the generator gets very cold.  I'm worried that something
        ^ Insert?: "hot"
>will go wrong.  Any suggestions?

Sure, Marv.  What you do, is attach each to a good, insulated heat sink with
an embedded heat pipe, and run the two heat pipes to a thermocouple.  Use the
derived juice to power a small carbon-arc, through which air is propelled.
This should generate sufficient carbon and nitrogen oxides to allow you to
bring the car UP to emissions standards.

Still, I'm not sure just WHY you're getting that heat transfer.  I've thought
about it a good bit, and it sounds to me like a good AI problem.  There ought
to be someone around MIT who knows something about that....

						d



--
		"I purr, therefore I am."     -- Rene Decates
      Duke McMullan n5gax nss13429r phon505-255-4642 ee5391aa@hydra.unm.edu

cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (Crash Gordon) (11/20/90)

>One problem, though.  When going up steep hills the motor gets
>awfully, and the generator gets very cold.  I'm worried that something
>will go wrong.  Any suggestions?

I'm assuming you meant to say the motor gets awfully _hot_.

You could cool the motor by surrounding it with thermocouples.  This would
salvage that waste heat and you could top off the batteries with it. 
(You'll find the extra power handy on those uphill stretches)

I wouldn't worry about the cold alternator.  It will work more efficiently
at low temperatures.  If you make the windings out of hi-temp
superconducting ceramics, you'll get infinite current from a sufficiently
cold alternator.  Then you could add some peltier wafers to keep it cool.

We'd better hope Detroit doesn't read this group; I think we're onto
something!

-----------------------------------------------------
Gordon S. Hlavenka            cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us
Disclaimer:                Yeah, I said it.  So what?